Six Games and Consoles that Were Ahead of their Time

Sometimes, you can set your sights a little too high. Sometimes, you can go a little too far. Sure, your brilliant concept and original design might set you light-years ahead of the competition… but that might not necessarily be a good thing. Sometimes, being too revolutionary is just as bad as not being revolutionary enough.

For one reason or another, all of the items on this list – despite their obvious strong points – just didn't make it.

SEGA Dreamcast

You're probably not surprised that the first console we're featuring is the SEGA Dreamcast. This device was truly revolutionary. Its graphics blew the competition out of the water. Its games were largely innovative and entertaining. The system's controller was completely unique, and nothing like it had ever been seen before in the industry. Even now, the console has a large, dedicated fan-base, and collectors zealously seek out Dreamcasts of their own. Oh, and it also pioneered online console gaming in the western world. It truly looked as though the Dreamcast could take the world by storm, and maybe even unseat Nintendo from its throne as it did so.

So... what happened?

Well, first, SEGA was already in financial trouble before releasing the Dreamcast. It had released a series of flubs and flops (the Sega 32X, Sega CD, and the Nomad). As a result, by the time the Dreamcast launched, developers were already running scared, and many third-party devs decided that Sony or Nintendo were a safer bet than SEGA. To make matters worse, the Dreamcast suffered from supply shortages all over throughout the console's short shelf life. That, combined with SEGA's ailing financial state, ultimately led to a tragic end for a great console.

Nintendo Virtual Boy

This system was the first console ever to feature three-dimensional graphics, and the first attempt at virtual reality in the console business. Featuring a visor display that was supposed to immerse gamers completely in their games, it served as the precursor to the Nintendo 3DS. Unfortunately, it's not hard to see why this one failed: the graphics were horrendous; even if they were three-dimensional, the device was clunky and unwieldy, and it was, as a whole, a bad idea from the start. The technology simply hadn't reached the point where such a device was viable.

A gamer at heart, Nick started writing when he was a child. He holds a BA in English, works as a freelancer, and loves every minute of it. One day, he hopes to net himself a career in game design - but that's something for the future.

The views of GameDynamo's writers are not necessarily the views of the website as a whole. However, we support freedom of speech and enjoy diverse opinions about video games. Hopefully you do too!